PBEM 5 - regoarrarr spoiler thread

[regoarrarr]

What happens for overflow if you complete a build the turn before you rush the wonder? Do you still get that overflow too, or does it disappear?

I dunno.

I volunteer a lurker to WB test it, and then post the answer here (for post-count purposes )

[athlete4life10]

I'm too lazy to WB test it but I bet you keep it...

[regoarrarr]

In something that reminded me of when we settled Cape Town in the Apolyton demogame, there was one last tile of fog in the far NW.

Naturally, it had a fish tile



Not sure I can settle it. I could settle on the fur, and it might be worth it with the fish.

[regoarrarr]

Played a few turns today. With a bit of overflow (of both the cash and beaker kind) off of my research of Guilds, and a bit of specialist MMing, I was able to finish off Banking with only 2 turns (1 cash and 1 science).

That allowed this



I double revolted this turn (T103) and will assign all the free specs this upcoming turn (tomorrow). The early returns show that at 0% science, I am making 54 beakers from specialists alone. My breakeven rate was about 180 bpt, so this is about a 30% increase.

In C&D news, I believe I have pegged darrell's last 2 techs researched as Machinery (T98) and Guilds (T103), based on two large soldier point increases on those turns (both of those techs are worth 8K soldier points).

I am still missing 1-2 techs that he discovered in between discovering Metal Casting on T84 and those two - I would have to assume Code of Laws and Civil Service would make sense. Hmm but he'd have to have Feudalism also to do Guilds....

He did Guilds (884 beakers) in (approximately) 5 turns, so that works out to let's say 190 bpt. If we discount that a bit from his research rate not being as good 15 turns ago, let's say that in between T84 and T98 (14 turns), he researched 1800 beakers, of which we know 619 was Machinery.

I'm guessing he has decided to bypass Civil Service. His capital is at best his 3rd best city (it's size 9 and he has at least 2 size 12 cities). Additionally there is no water to spread irrigation and macemen are worthless. So I'm going to still say that he did Code of Laws because he'd need courthouses for his empire, and then Feudalism->Machinery->Guilds.

Originally this morning when I saw that he had researched Machinery, I thought he had maybe researched Compass and was going for Optics. If I'm ahead of him in techs (and I appear to be at least in some areas), getting the 15% research bonus from knowing me would seem to be attractive. I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to meet HIM and give HIM that bonus, though I would like to get a map of his lands for C&D purposes.

[regoarrarr]

A little bit of MMing (sort of) here. I was going to run a turn of 0% science here (picking up Hunting for the ivory / deer / furs with my Rep specialists), but I realized that I have a bank and market completing next turn. So I decided to delay Hunting, run max science and finish off Paper this turn.

That way next turn, when I do go to all cash, I'll have 27 extra gold from the bank and 8 from that market. It does delay camping the deer by 1 turn but that's okay. I think 35 gold beats out 2 food

[regoarrarr]

So another turn this evening.



I finished Paper, and had about 200 beakers overflow. My plan was to research Hunting @ 0% next, while saving money for Education.

As you can see, I make 82 beakers @ 0% thanks to my Representation-enhanced specialists. You can also see that I take my screenshots with the resource bubbles on

So while I felt pretty good that I would get the 82-34 = 48 beakers overflow from that turn, I was not sure about the 200 beakers that would essentially be double overflow. I did do a WB test and it did appear that you still kept them, but I didn't feel confident enough, so I ended up just saving gold another turn on Education, delaying Hunting 1 more turn.

I actually ended up @ 10% science on Education, in the hopes that I can knock off Education in 2t of all science once I finish this turn of gold and next turn of gold on Hunting. I should have about 500 gold in the bank and am losing about 230gpt. I am making about 520bpt @ max sci and currently have 343/1591 in Education.

[SevenSpirits]

So I decided to delay Hunting, run max science and finish off Paper this turn.

What does the tech choice have to do with whether you're running research or gold? (Why not tech hunting anyway?)

[regoarrarr]

What does the tech choice have to do with whether you're running research or gold? (Why not tech hunting anyway?)

Yeah I was pondering that while out for my morning constitutional. I think that you're right.

Let's simplify things and say that I make 500bpt at max science, and 80 at 0% science. Hunting is 34 beakers and Paper needs 520 left.

I was thinking that I didn't want to "waste" a max science turn on Hunting, since I could get it in 1 turn at min science anyways.

But if I go 100% then 0% in 2 turns, you are right that it doesn't matter which tech I pick. If I had picked Hunting at max sci, then the overflow, coupled with the next turn at 0% science, would have been enough to finish Paper.

So really the only difference is that I got Paper a turn earlier and Hunting a turn later (which was not a good thing)

So..... chalk that one up to me outsmarting myself

[regoarrarr]

In other news, when I got Hunting, apparently a warrior that should have finished on the inter-turn was auto-upgraded to a spearman (boo). I guess I should have realized that, since we often take advantage of that in the opposite way (like by "pre-building" trebuchets while researching Steel).

Also at the end of this past turn, my next GP popped - it was a prophet at 22% odds. I would have preferred another engineer but this is okay. I think that I will build the Confucian shrine in Pizarro, my Moai / copper city

[regoarrarr]

Another turn this afternoon at lunch, and we have some interesting things!



Darrell discovered Philosophy (and founded Taoism) and also completed the MoM. I had my eye on that wonder, especially since I'm likely to get 3-5 GAs during this game. I actually had considered rushing that with my engineer should one have popped (it was I think 69% engineer vs. the 22% prophet that I got). If I'm reading the charts right, I'd have beaten him by the tiebreaker, which would have been funny. But that's okay.

A bit more concerning is the fact that he has researched Philosophy. I'm fairly sure he doesn't have Paper or Education, so I think I'm still in decent shape to get Liberalism, but that is going to put a crimp on my plans to research Economics, Drama and Alphabet (to take PP with Lib) before hand.

Education and Paper are 2000 beakers, whereas Econ, Drama, Philo and Alphabet are also 2200 beakers. And he's a turn ahead of me, as he discovered Philosophy on T110 and I will discover Education at BOT 112. So 2 turns, but I win the tiebreaker, so really it's just one turn. And getting Drama will of course give me another pre-req discount on Philo, shaving off about 140 beakers.

Though I was wondering today if Liberalism is even really worth it, in a game like this. Lib is 1400 normal-speed beakers vs. Printing Press at 1600. So there's a bit of savings there, and it also is a pre-req to Communism and Free Speech and Free Religion (neither of which I'm likely to ever run). Actually I could not research eitehr Liberalism OR Communism as they're both optional for space. Obviously they both have nice "first to research" bonuses.

Hmm actually a better idea would be to take Economics with Liberalism. That means that I only have to research Drama and Philosophy (966 beakers) before starting on Liberalism. I should get both Lib and Econ first, and can then move on to Alphabet->Printing Press. Econ is 200 normal-speed beakers less than PP, but that's probably worth the security of potentially being beaten to either Lib or Econ.

And in other news, here's a screenie from the turn before where my warrior auto-upgraded to a spear and I "wasted" 10 hammers. I did decide to continue on with the spearman as it's only 13 hammers from completion, which is less than I can build any other MP unit. I think that will make 17 MP units for me, so I'm missing just one I think.